Domain Name Endurance - How Long You Should Register and Why

A question some people have when registering domain names, is how long should the domain name be registered for? The answer to that question will depend on a number of things. The market you are in will probably have a greater effect on this than anything else.

A good way to figure this out would be to check and see how long the competition has their domain names registered for. Make sure that you're checking both the business domain names and the personal domain names of your competitors, if possible. You also want to check market trends. If your market is fading out, you probably only want to register it for as long as the competition or register it for the minimum option of a year, and set it up for automatic renewal. That way if the market bottoms out before expected you can take your domain name off of automatic renewal and drop it at the end of its term. If the market is doing well and doesn't show any signs of fading out, you should register your domain names for a longer-term than the competition.

If you own or have found an unregistered domain name that is short and is easy to remember, register the domain name for a longer term regardless of the competition. The reason being, is that there are many investors out there that will buy a domain name from you for a very large amount based on these two factors alone. It also helps the sale, when the domain is registered for a longer period of time because the buyer won't have to pay renewal fees any time soon if ever. Now, I've only mentioned this for the fact that you should be able to sell a short and easy to remember domain name regardless of what the market is looking like at the time. Single and two word domain names are very hard to find nowadays, and have awesome potential at domain auctions.

If you cannot afford to register your domain name for more than a year or so, make sure you use the automatic renewal feature if you're planning to keep it. This will avoid you from losing ownership of the domain name when it expires. There are people that watch domain names that are close to expiration, with the hopes of being able to snatch them up before they are re-registered. There's also the option to put an expiring domain name on backorder before its expiration. So it's important that you put your domain names on automatic renewal before the expiration date comes in order for you to be able to keep ownership of a domain name you have registered.

You are normally given the option to register a domain name for a longer duration at a lower price. For example, it generally costs $9.99 per year regular price, to register a .com domain name at a domain registrar, but you usually have the option to register it for 10 years and only be charged $6.95 per year. The only drawback would be for those who don't have the full 10 year payment up front because there is not an option for you to pay them yearly or otherwise. Registering a domain name, whether long-term or short-term, has many options and benefits. Just make sure you chose wisely.